It has come to light this week that 40 children who have been held in adult detention centres for asylum seekers have received a share of £1 million in compensation. Legal proceedings began in 2005 for the children who were thought to be as young as 14 years of age. In the UK, asylum seekers are treated as adults if they are aged over 18, however in the past, immigration officers could make their own judgements as to the young persons age. This policy led to many young people being treated as adults and held in detention. This policy has now been changed. The children came from countries such as Afghanistan, Iran, Somalia and China and were paid in 2009 and 2010. The children were represented by Bhatt Murphy Solicitors, who commented that vulnerable children should not have been locked up by the state. The Border Agency has said that they take the welfare of young people very seriously and independent age assessors now carry out checks on the age of any asylum seeker who has no identification and whose age is in doubt.

Figures released by the Association of Personal Lawyers have shown that between 2006 and 2010 the figures for deaths from mesothelioma were three times the national average in the area of Barrow. Mesothelioma is a type of cancer which is brought on by exposure to asbestos. There were 45 deaths in the Barrow area during the period which was worked out at 8.4 deaths per 100,000 people. Nationally the average is just 2.5 deaths. It is thought that the high rates are due to the history of engineering and boat building in the area. The APIL president David Bott has pointed out that the number of people dying form this disease is expected to peak over the next five years. He suggests that the government needs to bring forward proposals for a last resort fund for those people who are unable to get compensation for their injury. Many people cannot trace their employer and therefore cannot claim for the compensation they are due.

Master of the Rolls Lord Neuberger has hit out at how no-win, no-fee lawyers are charging huge amounts in fees for relatively small cases. The most senior civil law judge spoke out after a lawyer charged £74,000 for winning £13,000 in compensation for his plumber client. The lawyer from Irwin Mitchell charged up to £250 per hour, which was doubled in the event of the case being won. Plumber Adrian Simcoe was paid the compensation after it was found that he developed receptive strain injury due to his work as a shower cubicle assembler. His employer paid him the damages, but also received a bill for the lawyer fees, plus a 60% success fee. In addition the law firm wanted the employer to cover the cost of the insurance it had taken out to cover them in case they lost the case. Lord Neuberger has stated that this is not actually exceptional in these types of cases and he hopes that legislation changes should ensure that costs better reflect the work done.

Spanish bank Santander has been fined £1.5 million for not making it clear enough to their structured investment clients whether their products were covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. £2.7 billion worth of these investments were sold from 2008 and despite getting many queries from their clients, they did not clarify their position until 2010. This meant that the literature used to sell these products was misleading and staff had not been trained on how to answer the question of compensation. The FSA has pointed out that the products themselves were not mis-sold and that none of the investors lost money due to the oversight.